TAIPEI (AFP) - One person was killed and two others were injured on Thursday when part of a house caved in on the Taipei set of Hollywood director Martin Scorsese's upcoming film Silence, officials confirmed.

A ceiling collapsed on three Taiwanese construction workers who were reinforcing an old brick-and-wood house at the Chinese Culture and Movie Center Central Pictures during pre-production, said the Taipei city fire department.

A worker identified as Chen Yu-lung was pronounced dead at the hospital while the others sustained injuries to their heads and legs, it said.

"The director is shocked and saddened that one worker was fatally wounded. He regrets that this incident happened," said David Lee, a Taiwanese producer working with Scorsese, the award-winning director of such movies as Taxi Driver (1976), Casino (1995) and The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013).

Lee told reporters that the incident was not expected to affect the filming schedule.

Shooting was due to begin on Friday, according to two financial backers of the film - the companies Fábrica de Cine and SharpSword.

Silence, based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, portrays Portuguese Jesuits in the 17th century suffering persecution as they work in isolated areas of Japan.

It will star Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver and will be released in cinemas in 2016.

Scorsese is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to film in Taiwan in recent years, following Taiwan native Lee Ang who filmed the Oscar-winning 2012 3-D adventure Life Of Pi on the island, and French director Luc Besson, who shot some of his 2014 sci-fi thriller Lucy in Taipei.